I noticed changes to the look & feel of the Android Market over the holiday break when grabbing some apps for my Droid, but just had the chance to search the Android blog and found more details. Here is some info from the blog:
This new Market client introduces important features that improve merchandising of applications, streamline the browse-to-purchase experience, and make it easier for developers to distribute their applications.
With a focus on improving discoverability and merchandising, we’ve introduced a new carousel on the home and category screens. Users can quickly flip through the carousel to view promoted applications and immediately go to the download page for the application they want. Developers have been very active in creating great Widgets and Live Wallpapers. To make it easier for users to find their favorites, we’re introducing two new categories for Widgets and Live Wallpapers. Applications that include Widgets and Wallpapers will be automatically added to those new categories. We’ll also be adding more categories for popular applications and games in the weeks ahead. In addition, the app details page now includes Related content, which makes it easier for users to quickly find apps of similar interest.
This is the same market update that also introduced the wrong-headed 15-minute refund Carly Z wrote about.
So what has happened in the last three weeks? Well, now folks are actually starting to see the market roll-out – it appeared just after Christmas for me on Verizon, and others are just seeing it now. This means that you get a look at the permissions required in a more user-friendly way … and also that you now have less than 15 minutes to download, test, and ask for a refund!
Have you gotten the new market client yet? What do you think?